U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) on Wednesday introduced the Parity in Animal Cruelty Enforcement (PACE) Act, a bill that would extend the federal ban on animal fighting for entertainment or gaming to U.S. territories.
Although federal law in the United States has banned animal fighting for 10 years, U.S. territories are exempt from the ban.
“Animal fighting is an atrocious activity that, for many years, has been banned in the United States,” said Roskam. He added that his bipartisan bill, H.R. 4202, “closes the loophole that, until now, has allowed this despicable practice to continue throughout our U.S. territories,” he continued.
Joining Roskam in introducing the bipartisan PACE Act were U.S. Reps. Rodney Davis (R-IL), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Rick Nolan (D-MN), among others.
Animal fighting has significant health implications. For example, after a 2002-2003 outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease in the United States, costing taxpayers more than $180 million, illegally imported game fowl was the cause of the disease’s spread to commercial poultry, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Because birds used in cockfighting are particularly vulnerable to diseases that can be passed along to humans, Roskam’s office said strengthening the law against cockfighting helps protect poultry suppliers from diseases such as avian flu.
Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, commended Roskam’s bill.
“We shouldn’t have one set of rules against animal cruelty for all 50 states and a different set of rules for U.S. territories. Dogfighting and cockfighting are barbaric practices, more widely criminalized than any other form of animal cruelty in the world, and the prohibitions should apply to every part of the country,” Pacelle said.